Crumlin Star 4-3 Kilroot Rec

The Star faced table toppers Kilroot Rec on Saturday with a chance of closing the gap at the top of the table at steak. Although Kilroot where 11 points ahead of the Star in the league they'd played 16 games to the Star's 8 so the Ardoyne men knew that anything other than a win wouldn't be good enough. Both teams where missing key players with the Star missing McAlea, Paul Brown, Devenny & Mooney whilst Kilroot where short of at least five first team regulars. The Star got of to a flier when Gormley scored after 30 seconds when he  picked the ball up just outside the box and drilled the ball into the bottom corner to put the Star 1-0 up. Kilroot scored a deserved equaliser midway through the half when their center forward fired home from the edge of the area to leave Thompson in goal with no chance. Gormley then got his second of the day just before the half time whistle when he broke Kilroots offside trap and confidently side footed the ball beyond the away teams keeper to send the Star into a 2-1 advantage at half time.
H/T 2-1
The Star started the second half the stronger as they felt the next goal would be important and Sean Brown delivered it when Reid broke down the right and cut the ball back to the stand in striker and he blasted the ball home from all of  seven yards. The Star then pressed for a fourth goal but got sloppy in attack as chances went begging with Sean Brown, Anto Braniff and Joe Gormley all wasteful in front of goal. The Star where to rue these missed chances as kilroot somehow managed to pull it back to 3-3 after some lack luster defending from the home side gifted kilroot  with a couple of goals. To their credit the Star never let their heads drop and went straight onto the attack and literally seconds after the restart Braniff picked Reid out in the box for the little midfielder to head the Star back into the lead with a few minutes to go. The drama wasn't over at this stage as Braniff gave away the ball cheaply in extra time for the away side to charge up the pitch for one last attack and after some pin-ball in the Star's penalty area Sean O'Reilly was judged to have brought down the Kilroot striker for a penalty. Up stepped their captain to salvage a draw for the away side but Thompson in goal had other ideas as he brilliantly saved the resulting penalty to give the Star a 4-3 win.

Reider scored the winner on Saturday

Mal Thompson saved a penalty in injury time